The Halifax Mooseheads are reeling after squandering a rare opportunity for a winning streak on the weekend.

The Mooseheads blew a pair of two-goal leads, including a 4-2 edge early in the third period, on Saturday at the Metro Centre and suffered a 5-4 loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes.

They were on the verge of just their third three-game winning streak since February 2008 after a galvanizing 6-2 win over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens on Friday.

“We played good, but we’re gonna have to (learn to) win when we have the lead,” said Mooseheads left-winger Carl Gelinas, shaking his head after the letdown.

“We can’t stop working and (we have to) finish strong because if we can’t persevere, we’re not going to be a top-standing team.”

The Cataractes scored three times in a 9:32 stretch to post the come-from-behind triumph.

Mooseheads goaltender Mathieu Corbeil allowed five goals on 23 shots and admitted afterward he’d like to take two of the third-period goals back.

The 4-3 goal and game-winning tally beat him cleanly up high, one from the top of the faceoff circle and another from near the hash-marks.

“We’re very disappointed,” Gelinas said. “We should have won this game. We were all over them all game and in the third, they rush, shoot, score.”

The 18-year-old Gelinas was the star of the weekend, with a hat trick on Saturday and another goal on Friday. He has nine goals among 15 points in his past 14 games.

Gelinas’s linemate, Martin Frk, had a five-point weekend with a goal and four assists.Herd not leaving home yetThe Halifax Mooseheads will look to regain their footing quickly as they remain at the Metro Centre for the next two weeks.

The Mooseheads, 7-14-1, have four games left on a six-game homestand, and host the P.E.I. Rocket on Friday at 7 p.m. It’s the Herd’s only game this weekend.

“We had a good week and we played hard both games,” said Mooseheads goalie Mathieu Corbeil. “There are still four more games to win and we can beat anyone when we put our minds to it.”